Posts Tagged by Keystone XL Pipeline

In the past, we have covered stories about government attempts to shut down resource projects without a fair chance for review, including President Obama and the Keystone XL pipeline and Sen. Maria Cantwell’s [D-WA] efforts against the Pebble project in Alaska. Now, it turns out that despite being “roundly smacked down by the Supreme Court for their fine first, investigate later use of the Clean Water Act,” the EPA is moving forward with plans to try to shut down the Pebble Mine project—before it has even applied for permits or been formally proposed!

In other words, an unelected department full of government bureaucrats is trying to shut down an important resource project before it’s even had the chance to apply for permits. No matter that the mine would provide thousands of area jobs or that the partnership running the potential mine “has invested [millions] to make Pebble… the most environmentally friendly mine in history.”

“This unprecedented power grab from the EPA would eliminate local and state authorities from having any say in the permitting process and gut the process established under the National Environmental Policy Act—passed by the environmentalists themselves.”

Apparently the EPA hasn’t gotten the memo from the White House that we’re supposed to be ending bullying, not participating in it.

“The Pebble project, like Keystone before it, is just one large example of the trend under this president. While publically saying that they are pursuing an ‘all of the above’ energy and resource strategy, down in the trenches (out of public view for the most part) what is really happening is that administratively and bureaucratically they are ensuring that “none of the above” ever see the light of day.”

You can take action via Resourceful Earth by sending a letter to your Representative and Senators telling them to stopthe EPA and their bullying tactics here.

Even though President Obama has indicated that he may (or may not) rethink his rejection of the Keystone XL Pipeline, his initial rejection of it has caused Canada to rethink their energy partnership with the United States. After all, Canada has to look after their own interests.

“Look, the very fact that a ‘no’ could even be said underscores to our country that we must diversify our energy export markets,” Harper said. “We cannot be, as a country, in a situation where our one and, in many cases, only energy partner could say no to our energy products. We just cannot be in that position.”

The Prime Minister also mentioned that Canada has been selling oil to the United States at a discounted price. But now that the Great White North is expanding its oil export market, that discount will probably disappear.

Get that? The U.S. will not only have less access to Canadian oil but it will also have to pay more for it because the market for oilsands crude is expanding (and therefore more competitive).

“We have taken a significant price hit by virtue of the fact that we are a captive supplier and that just does not make sense in terms of the broader interests of the Canadian economy,” Harper said. “We’re still going to be a major supplier of the United States. It will be a long time, if ever, before the United States isn’t our number one export market, but for us the United States cannot be our only export market.”

This is what happens when you try to make everybody happy on both sides of an issue. Everyone ends up unhappy. Either way, we end up paying more for less oil.

There has been a lot of outrage and grumbling since the Obama Administration denied permits for the Keystone XL pipeline leaving Canada with little choice but to look to China for partnership on that project which would have otherwise brought jobs and energy independence to the United States. Unfortunately, grumbling and outrage don’t do a lot of good unless it’s accompanied by determined action.

There is one (only one!) panel presenting at CPAC this weekend in Washington, D.C. that is addressing ‘The Obama EPA’s Green Assault on American Jobs’. You are invited to attend and to offer your signature to help stop the radical green agenda that is killing America’s security, energy independence and American jobs. Read about it below.

Conservative activists are meeting this weekend at the yearly CPAC (Conservative Political Action Committee) and one of the issues that will be addressed, at least at one panel (PDF), is the ‘green’ agenda to destroy American jobs. That issue will be addressed in a panel titled ‘the Obama EPA’s Green Assault on American Jobs’ on Thursday, February 9th at 4:15 p.m. Panelists will include Competitive Enterprise Institute’s (CEI’s) Myron Ebell (also representing Resourceful Earth!), Senator Jim Inhofe (R-OK), who sits as the ranking Republican on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, and Rep. Cory Gardner (R-CO), from the House Energy and Commerce Committee.

We hope you will attend and spread the word to your readers, friends and other attendees. As a friend of mine says, the time for talk is over. Its time to take action while there is still time to prevent the lost of the opportunities the Keystone XL pipeline will offer the United States. In other words, put your action (and signature) where your mouth is. Stand up and stand with us. Time is running out.

The radicals at Obama’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) are using regulations to prevent the harvesting of America’s resources from obtaining natural gas, drilling for oil to mining for coal and copper (essential elements for modern living!). They are killing American jobs, threatening our economic and national security while boosting the fortunes for foreign THUGS and TYRANTS that hate us. It is beyond any rational comprehension. No lasting society undermines its own existence in this way. We must stop this insanity!

The Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) and Resourceful Earth are taking the fight to the radical environmentalists in the Obama Administration. It would be hard to over state what is at stake here and the ways in which these over-regulations are undermining American jobs and America’s national security.

Radicals in the EPA are using regulations to slam the door on everything from natural gas and oil drilling to coal and copper mining, killing American jobs, threatening our economic and national security, and boosting the fortunes of foreign thugs and tyrants that hate us.

The Keystone XL pipeline will create thousands of American jobs, provide us with energy from a responsible and reliable source, and should NOT be politicized as it has been throughout the Obama Administration

There are vast national security implications for American resources development, it takes mined minerals and metals to build our modern military machine yet radical environmentalists are killing domestic mining and forcing a growing reliance on China for the very materials necessary to keep our nation secure.

We hope to see you at ‘The Obama EPA’s Green Assault on American Jobs’ panel on Thursday, February 9th at 4:15 p.m.

Also, you will have the opportunity to put your signature where your outrage is. Resourceful Earth will be canvasing the halls of CPAC for signature aimed at stopping the radical ‘green’ agenda undermining American jobs. I hope you will take this opportunity to support the Keystone XL pipeline.

Canada’s Prime Minister Steven Harper has expressed his ‘profound disappointment’ in Obama’s decision to deny permits for TransCanada’s Keystone XL Pipeline to be shared with the United States. Harper has said it seems to be best for Canada to look at diversifying. At this point Canada and the United States partner on most of the imports and exports of crude. Instead of putting all their eggs in the United States’ basket, they’ll look to China.

President Barack Obama’s decision yesterday to reject a permit for TransCanada Corp.’s Keystone XL oil pipeline may prompt Canada to turn to China for oil exports.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper, in a telephone call yesterday, told Obama “Canada will continue to work to diversify its energy exports,” according to details provided by Harper’s office. Canadian Natural Resource Minister Joe Oliver said relying less on the U.S. would help strengthen the country’s “financial security.”

The “decision by the Obama administration underlines the importance of diversifying and expanding our markets, including the growing Asian market,” Oliver told reporters in Ottawa.

Currently, 99 percent of Canada’s crude exports go to the U.S., a figure that Harper wants to reduce in his bid to make Canada a “superpower” in global energy markets.

Canada accounts for more than 90 percent of all proven reserves outside the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, according to data compiled in the BP Statistical Review of World Energy. Most of Canada’s crude is produced from oil-sands deposits in the landlocked province of Alberta, where output is expected to double over the next eight years, according to the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers.

“I am sure that if the oil sands production is not used in the United States, they will be used in other countries,” Fatih Birol, chief economist at the International Energy Agency, said in an interview before a speech at Imperial College in London today.

Is Obama putting his own job security ahead of the national interest of the United States. What happens if Canada decides to build the Keystone XL Pipeline to their west coast – and on to Asia – to be refined instead of through the United States? Do the radical environmentalists really think that China will refine that oil more cleanly than the United States? Or perhaps they just will feel better about themselves that they accomplished something. But what will they and Barack Obama have accomplished?

Losing the Keystone XL Pipeline will further weaken America’s standing in the world. Tens of thousands of American jobs will be lost. The American economy will lose an excellent opportunity to help jump-start our faltering economy. Gas prices will rise. Meanwhile, Canada will develop stronger bonds with China and China’s economy and global standing will continue to grow. Ironically, whatever damage might (or might not) be done to the environment will be worse because China’s regulations are no where near as stringent as those in place in the United States.

There really isn’t an upside to losing the opportunity for the United States to participate in the Keystone XL Pipeline. Yet Obama is willing to do just that in hopes of getting the environmentalists votes for his re-election. Where is the hope and change in that?

Please help us make this madness stop before it’s too late. Sign the petition!

[FACEBOOK] http://on.fb.me/yomDu2 Sign the petition! Urge the Obama Administration to approve the Keystone XL pipeline by the February 21 deadline.

[TWITTER] Sign the petition: http://bit.ly/A8K2mV Urge #Obama to approve the #KeystoneXL pipeline by the February 21 deadline! #YesKXL

The Obama Administration has denied permits to build the Keystone XL Pipeline. Obama has taken this action in spite of promises to create American jobs and reduce our dependence on foreign oil. With the stroke of a pen, the Obama Administration has killed what could have meant enormous economic gains for the United States.

The Keystone XL Pipeline will transport oil from Canada to refineries in Oklahoma and Texas. It will create over 10,000 jobs immediately and over 300,000 over the next 5-years. It would provide a much needed source for oil, which would in turn reduce our dependence on foreign sources and reduce the price of gas at the pump, giving a boost to our floundering economy.

It sounds like a win-win situation to the majority of Americans. Unfortunately, the environmental extremist think that it will result in less demand for high-efficiency vehicles and research into fuel alternatives.

The denial of these permits don’t mean the project is completely deal. What it does mean is that it is delayed (again!). TransCanada has the option of appealing the permit denial and has announced that they will appeal. The delay means that the issue will be postponed until after Obama’s re-election campaign, meaning he can count on the environmentalist vote next November. Apparently keeping his job is more important to him than creating American jobs and reducing American dependence on foreign oil.